Twenty - That's All Folks!

Miles traveled in the RV: 3,338 

  (I didn't keep track of miles on the Escape, sorry)

Gas cost for the RV: $1,775

RV camping costs: $470 

  (for 10 nights in RV parks; other 6 nights we dry camped in parking lots or were provided housing)

Amount saved by not having to stay in hotels: $2,000 
  (room at a lodge in Yellowstone area approx. $200/night; other hotels along the way assumed $100/night)

States visited or passed through: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Nebraska, Missouri

Photos taken: 1,804

Number of Workampers & Employers interviewed:  20

Amount of video interviews Luke has to edit: 74 GB (that's a lot)

Types of animals seen:  pronghorns (look like antelopes), buffalo, bald eagle, elk, white american pelican, sandhill cranes, mule deer, horses (duh), coyote, MOOSE!

Jody's Favorite Part: Probably kayaking on Yellowstone Lake. And driving the RV through Yellowstone and Grand Teton - it's way better than sitting low in a car.

Luke's Favorite Part: Flying the airplane in Idaho. And the buffalo walking past the RV on the first day in Yellowstone.

What we'd do differently: Spend more time there! Try to camp within the park. Eat at one of the restaurants within Yellowstone (we did good about packing a picnic everyday to save money).

Take away: Everyone MUST visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton. It will be unforgettable...even if you manage to not injure yourself. :)

Update on Luke: The orthopedic surgeon in Heber confirmed he has a type 5 AC separation. The best path to a fully functioning, painless shoulder is surgery followed by physical therapy, so that's what we're going to do! Luke's been 'shopping around' as to where to have the surgery done. The Heber hospital wanted $18,000 plus surgeon fees, etc. The Conway hospital wanted $10,000. We would have received about a 40% discount if we paid in full since he's uninsured, but still, a lotta moo-lah. Finally, we found that the OrthoArkansas Little Rock office has a surgery center, and they can do the whole shebang for $3,000-some. And they have a 'shoulder specialist'. We have a winner! Luke will likely have surgery within the next week or two. Hopefully, the physical therapy can be done in Heber.

Thanks to everyone who has read our blog and enjoyed our adventures! We so appreciate the opportunity that Workamper News gave us to experience such a beautiful part of our country.

Nineteen - 9/3

We are home again, home again!

The drive from Peculiar, Missouri to Heber Springs was a familiar one, as it's part of the route we take when we go to Des Moines to visit the fam.  We finally got on the road at almost 11 am, and pulled in to Heber about 7 pm.  We made one stop in Bentonville for a late lunch at Panera Bread.

I really dislike driving through Missouri. For one, it's boring. And second, they put their rumble strips RIGHT ON THE LINE instead of a bit further over on the shoulder like other states who don't hate their road drivers.  In the RV...and in our car too, I suppose...I hug the right side of the lane. I'd just rather take out a curb than another vehicle.  In every other state, no big deal. In Missouri, BRUMBRUMBRUM...every other minute as the tires rolled over the rumble strips.  So I did my best to hug the left side of the right lane (sorry to any cars who had to pass me! - which was pretty much everyone on the road since we drove about 62-64 mph all the time).

An uneventful drive for the most part. We listened to some tunes, and then Luke read aloud from the Death in Yellowstone book.  He used voices this time - quite entertaining!

When we arrived in Heber, we went and dumped out the tanks at the Corps campground and then parked at the office. Mom & Dad came and helped us unload all of our crap out of the motorhome, and then load all of it into our house.  Luke and I then spent a few hours putting stuff away and cleaning up the "gifts" that Sam had left us (aka, he pees on stuff - curtains, clothes dryer, wood floor - pretty awesome).  About 10 pm we relaxed and watched some TV before heading to bed.

Also, somewhere along the way I managed to catch a bug...my throat has been pretty scratchy this evening.  Luke is doing as good as possible, and our local friend, Debbie, has already given us the lowdown on what docs to see/who to avoid, so we'll get him setup with a visit to the orthopedic doc soon.

This week I'll do one more sort of 'wrap up' post.  Thanks to everyone who has been reading and sharing our adventure with us!  We absolutely recommend that everyone visits the Yellowstone area.

Eighteen - 9/2

Happy Birthday, Chrystal!

Chrystal & Luke (and Rosie)

We got a great night's sleep and bid good-bye to our fabulous hosts in the morning. The drive over to York, Nebraska, where Luke's sister Chrystal's family lives took about an hour. We parked the RV at the Walmart and drove the Escape to the restaurant. Wow! It is so weird to go from driving the RV to driving a car.  It feels so funny at first, and I felt like I couldn't control the 'little' car at first.

Us visiting was a surprise to Chrystal. I planned this ahead of time with her hubby, Mark, and we appreciated his sneakiness.  It almost got ruined because a Facebook post of Luke's mentioned we were in Grand Island (I think), so she was nearly on to us!  We still got her though.  Her birthday was yesterday, but we'd be glad to see her and her fam anytime.

This couple has three girls, and they are fun and adorable. (The oldest, Lily, is smarter than most adults I know.  Fiona tells great 'knock, knock' jokes. And the baby, Eleanor, makes the best faces.)  A lunch was enjoyed at Chances "R" in downtown(?) York, and then we popped over to their house for a bit so we could take home some of their home grown goodies - tomatoes and peppers.

Fiona unamused by Uncle Luke

With a six hour drive ahead of us, we didn't stay long and got back on the road around 2 pm. I got us through Kansas City with no troubles, and we pulled in to Peculiar Park Place RV park about 8 pm.  This looks like a really nice park!  I wish we could stay longer to enjoy it. The lady in the office, Valerie, is super nice and we appreciated her stellar customer service over the phone today and when we arrived here later than most. Finally had good cell service/internet connection tonight, and some time.

We'll finish up the drive tomorrow! Hooray! Looking forward to cuddling with our kitties.  I hope they still remember us.  We've been happy being in the RV, but it will be nice to back in the house again with our bigger shower and DVR. :)

Seventeen - 9/1

We're sleeping in the street.

The Placzeks' street!  We drove and drove some more, and arrived to Grand Island, Nebraska sometime after 6 p.m.

Last night I didn't get much sleep; not sure why. Could have been the truck noises, or the generator, or the pile of emails I haven't addressed, or the renters who may or may not stay in our rental home, or Luke's poor shoulder and potential surgery, or two more days of driving...it's a toss up, really.

It was a bit of sleepy drive today, but Luke kept me awake. We've been reading 'Death in Yellowstone - Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park' (well, Luke's been reading it aloud).  It's pretty interesting. People have died from animal attacks, falling into geysers, and freezing in the snow. Yikes.

Us with Kevin (Dee was working at the fair)

Anyway, we were warmly welcomed by Kevin & Dee.  After stopping at a ginormous Bosselman's for gas and to dump our tanks, Kevin guided us to their home in a neighborhood that reminded us of "home" (Des Moines). Luckily, the street was very wide so being parked in front of their home didn't bother anybody. It was good timing as the Placzeks are about a week away from going full-time! It's very exciting, and they have their fifth wheel parked and nearly ready to roll in their driveway.

They took us to dinner at a restaurant/sports bar so I could catch up on all the games I missed today (Hawks win, woo hoo!). A yummy meal and some great conversation later, we went back to the RV and pretty much crashed. We were tuckered out.

Luke is doing alright. The pain medication helps, but it still hurts when he has to move around. Tomorrow will be a fun day. We are surprising Luke's sister Chrystal at lunch. 

Two days till kitties!

Sixteen - 8/31

Driving. Driving. Driving.

Well, it went okay. Luke got the RV out of the campground one handed and we parked it in an empty parking lot while we went and got breakfast (HC Organics - very yummy!). Finally at about noon, we embarked on the highway with myself behind the wheel.

Nine hours later, we are parked at a Wal-mart in Laramie, Wyoming. There's really no part of Wyoming that I don't find beautiful and/or cool looking, so the drive wasn't so bad.  I ended up driving almost an hour in the dark because the only rest area we found after sunset said 'no overnight camping', so we went all the way to Laramie.

Luke is doing well. He's pretty good as long as he is stationary.  I rocked it behind the wheel of the RV today, and feel much more confident. I absolutely could not have done it without Luke, as he provides moral support and all important guidance when making turns.

More driving tomorrow...hoping to land in Grand Island, Nebraska. (All I'll be booing the Huskers the whole way through :-p ).

Here's the view out the RV window this morning before we left...

 

Fifteen - 8/30

An eventful day.

Luke flew an airplane.
And Luke severely separated his shoulder.

So here's the full rundown. In the morning, we went to town and had breakfast at The Bunnery, which folks had told us was a good breakfast place. They were fast, and decent food.

Then we drove about 45 minutes to Driggs, Idaho. It was a beautiful ride as we had to go through/over the mountain range that runs along the west side of Jackson (I believe it's the Tetons, but sometimes there's different names for different parts of ranges.) Our destination was Teton Aviation, where we met Bob.

Luke and Bob

Bob is an airplane pilot who took us on a one-hour airplane ride around the Tetons and SE Idaho area. He was a super fellow, and ensured we had a good time. He also was familiar with Heber Springs as he has mountain biked and fished in the area. His parents were also, at one time, Workampers in Yellowstone Park, so that's cool. We flew in a smaller aircraft - a Cessna something or other. Luke sat shotgun and I sat in the back. We had headsets to communicate with each other. I snapped photos while Luke and Bob chatted away about flying (Luke would love to learn how to fly planes someday).

Tetons from the plane

River canyon (Snake or Teton)

The neatest part - Bob let Luke have control of the airplane quite a few times. He did a few turns and some ups and downs (real technical terms, I know). He was on cloud nine…literally (pa dum chhhh).  For real though, Bob said Luke did a really good job. It was awesome to see Luke have so much fun and partially fulfill a dream.

We then scurried quickly over to St. Anthony, Idaho, which was another hour or so drive. That's where the randomly placed sand dunes are. We had reserved ATV (four wheeler) rentals to do some cruising in the sand dunes for two hours. Mark at Dune Excursions got us setup on the ATVs…which neither of us have really ever ridden…and off we went into the wild sandy yonder (wearing gloves and helmets).  We made the mistake of going to the west first, that's where the taller sand dunes are. It was a bit freaky as many were steep and my wimpy ATV had some trouble going up some of the hills. I was not having fun. So, we altered our path and headed east instead, where the sand was more like rolling hills instead of mini mountains. Much easier to get around in, and less scary for me.

After maneuvering the terrain for a bit, I decided we should turn back towards the parking area since we were kind of far out. We began heading in that direction. Luke had been a bit more bold than I, so he would often vroom out of sight and then reappear closely, which was fine, he always came back and made sure I wasn't too far away (aww…).  I stopped for a minute to see what a couple other people were doing - they had an ATV and dune-buggy type thing. They were stopped also, checking something on the buggy. A minute later, I see one of the guys running…  I scooted forward and looked down into a valley… and there was my wonderful, amazing husband underneath the ATV in between the two sets of tires. I then started running down to him as well. Talk about a scary sight.

Luke had gone up a hill and was sort of distracted by the dune-buggy vehicle like I was and didn't realize the hill he went up didn't have a backside. He and his ATV went down a very steep wall of sand. Luke went over the front of the ATV since it's front wheels dug into the sand. He remembers landing and hearing the ATV rolling towards him. It must have rolled right over him since he ended up underneath it. The tall flag on the back of the ATV broke off but we couldn't find any signs that the thing had flipped over. Luke said the ATV rolling over him didn't hurt.

The other two guys in the dunes moved the ATV and helped Luke out from underneath it. Thankfully, the hill he went over wasn't that tall and there wasn't a huge bed of hard, black lava rocks in the valley below. (The nurse at the clinic later told us they have many head injuries from folks playing in the sand dunes and that some people don't make it out alive.) As Luke got up, he noticed a tightness in his right shoulder. The guy (aka guardian angel #1) had him do some arm movements so we could tell if it was dislocated or what. It wasn't dislocated, but it was already beginning to swell so something was going on.

The top bone should be in aligned with other.

We called rental guy Mark (thankfully Luke's cell phone survived) and had him meet us at a more close-by parking lot where he loaded up the ATVs and then took us back to our car. He said he didn't really see any damage to the ATV, so hopefully we won't be buying him a new four-wheeler. I booked it to nearby Rexburg to the Community Cares clinic. They saw him pretty quickly and took an X-ray.  The doc gave the news that Luke has a severely separated shoulder…the worse he's ever seen (oh great).

They fixed Luke up with a sling and some pain meds, and told us we need to see an orthopedic doctor when we get home because it's likely Luke will need surgery if he wants to have a pain-free, functional shoulder. Luke's clavicle bone is very high because it's likely that he ripped the three ligaments that holds it in place when he landed on the ground. The ligaments can be repaired, and the doc said that surgery is usually recommended within the first year after having the injury…craziness.

So yeah, our day ended up a bit differently than we anticipated. We didn't get back to the RV till dark, so no further sight-seeing in Grand Teton NP was possible. We really fell in love with the town of Jackson (with sunset landscapes like that, how could you not), and will go back soon to enjoy the town and the NP more. Although, we will not be ATVing in the sand dunes again without a guide, and we certainly do not recommend going off on your own in there unless you're a very experienced rider.

Oh by the way, we are supposed to leave for home tomorrow…and Luke usually drives the RV…  Guess it's time for me to suck it up and really learn how to drive this thing! Wish us luck.

Side note:  Luke is amazing. Even though he's in pain and discomfort, he's not really complaining. I'm glad to take care of him now as he always takes such good care of me.

Fourteen - 8/29

MOOSES!

And that's all that matters today. Two bulls and one female; the bulls spotted by yours truly. In Jackson, WY, south of Grand Teton NP.

Hard to get the camera to not focus on the trees/bushes

I see you...

This one was laying down until some guy got up close to take a picture (crazy guy!)

Female moose.

(Also - I know the correct plural form of 'moose' is 'moose'.  It's just way more fun to say 'mooses,' duh.)
--------------------------

So here's how the rest of the day went down.

We closed up the RV and battened down the hatches. Said our good-byes to the Yellowstone Holiday crew and headed on down the road towards Jackson, Wyoming. We made a quick stop in West Yellowstone, to the Yellowstone Outlet, to see if we could snap a few pictures of Buffaloman and Buffalogal at work…and we were successful as they had just arrived to work.

On our way through the park towards the South Entrance, we met one more lone buffalo. The trek to the south was smooth sailing, with a few stops for some road construction. As we neared Grand Teton National park, we saw a field of buffalo and pronghorns, which was cool. The landscapes got more and more beautiful as the Grand Tetons began to tower up into view. 

The drive to Jackson ended up taking us about four hours. Our reserved site was at Jackson Hole Campground - a Fireside Resort.  They have some modern cabins at the front of the property that are really cool. The sites here are very close together, but we fit okay.

Luke tried to get us all setup, but we had some issues with the auto leveling system. The back jacks went down, too well, and lifted our back tires off the ground again…making the rig not level. And some error lights flashed…oh boy. A call to the Texas RV Professor provided some moral support and a service manual for the leveling system we could actually read. Luke began the troubleshooting process, and thankfully a campground neighbor came over to see if he could help. Ken was a big help! Together, Luke and Ken got the jacks back up and then manually placed them down again. Fellow RVers are some of the greatest and most helpful folks you will ever meet.

A few hours later than we had expected, we finally went to the explore the town of Jackson. We were initially hoping to go back up into Grand Teton NP, but it wasn't going to be long before dark. We enjoyed a nice, and very filling dinner, at The Gun Barrel. The french onion soup was wonderful. A very rare buffalo prime rib was our least favorite out of the elk steak and venison bratwurst meal. Afterwards, we ventured around Jackson town square for a bit, then called it a night!